Welcome to the 1998 edition of Burning Sensations. Inside you'll find nearly 200 images brought back from the playa, plus you'll have the opportunity to follow along on the amazing journey of the Playa Chicken.

The photos tell the real story, but I had some other things I wanted to jot down, and for lack of a better place to do it, here they are. You can read through this if you want, or you can get clicking by choosing one of the categories at left.

• Miles driven: 1430.
• Gallons of water: 55, plus a case of Talking Rain.
• Preferred route: Seattle to Eugene to Cresent to La Pine to Lakeview to Gerlach. Repeat backwards.
• Amount of water needed to wash off full bodypaint: 5 gallons.
• Music that got us there and back: B52’s Cosmic Thing; Built to Spill Perfect From Now On; Chumbawamba First 2; Cornershop When I Was Born for the Seventh Time; Elvis Costello Spike; The dB’s Repercussion; Peter Gabriel Shaking the Tree; Gang of Four A Brief History of the Twentieth Century; Hazel Toreador of Love; Robyn Hitchcock Black Snake Diamond Roll; Joe Jackson Look Sharp!; Nirvana Nevermind; Liz Phair whitechocolatespacegg; Primus Pork Soda and Brown Album; Redd Kross Neurotica; REM Lifes Rich Pageant; 311 Down; Tricky Maxinquaye; Junior Brown Git With It; Billy Bragg and Wilco Mermaid Avenue; Nomad Nomad; Lou Reed New York; Patti Smith Easter; Chuscales Forever in My Heart.
• Best thing to take: unscented baby wipes.
• Worst thing to take: your dog.
• All photos taken with: Nikon CoolPix 900 digital camera, which I'm still learning to use. That's why some photos look a lot better than others. Maybe I'll have it all figured out by next year.
• Best meal on the playa: grilled pizza.
• Number of theme camp ideas for 1999: 7.
• Biggest surprise: the Playa Chicken made it home.
• Second biggest surprise: that numerous people remembered our Sticky Fingers Shoppe from last year.
• Don’t leave your camp at night without: glow sticks.
• More: to come.